1) Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of advertiser-sponsored telephony systems, and more particularly to a method of performing an automatic sales transaction in an advertiser-sponsored telephony system.
2) Description of the Related Art
Historically, a variety of advertising vehicles have existed for communicating information regarding goods or services (collectively referred to hereinafter as "products") which are for sale by a producer or retailer to potential buyers. Magazines, newspapers, billboards, direct mail solicitations, radio, and television all may effectively advertise the availability of products for sale. However, none of these vehicles allow an advertisement recipient to become a buyer "on the spot" by automatically purchasing or ordering an advertised product. The potential buyer must either visit a retail establishment which sells the advertised product, or, perhaps, the buyer can place a telephone call to a producer or retailer to place an order, or order by mail.
In the intervening time period between being exposed to the advertisement and having an opportunity to order the product, the potential buyer may forget information regarding the advertised product and a sale may be lost. Disadvantageously, the delay between the advertisement and the opportunity to order the product may have a tendency to reduce "impulse buying." Therefore, producers and retailers desire a method of performing an automatic sales transaction whereby an advertising recipient who is a potential buyer may automatically place an immediate purchase order for an advertised product. Desirably, an automatic sales transaction requires a minimal amount of input or work by the potential buyer to place the purchase order. Also desirably, the automatic sales transaction is accomplished by a computer or other automated device receiving and storing the purchase order without the need to have a person take the purchase order information at the time of the automatic sales transaction.
With the proliferation of computers connected "on-line" to on-line services and the Internet, the computer has become a popular product advertisement vehicle. A potential buyer's computer connected to an on-line service provider host computer or Internet "web site" host computer may receive therefrom data which includes a product advertisement. The potential buyer's computer then formats and presents the data, including the product advertisement, to the potential buyer who is using the computer.
For such computer-based product advertisement, systems and methods have been developed whereby a potential buyer may automatically purchase products advertised to the buyer by means of his or her computer. Typically, the computer-based product advertisement includes data comprising an embedded link which a potential buyer may activate for establishing a computer connection between the potential buyer's computer and a host computer for a producer and/or retailer selling the advertised product. When the potential buyer connects his computer to the producer/retailer's host computer (which may be shared among a number of producers, retailers, and other users), the producer/retailer may provide an electronic form which the potential buyer can fill out, using his computer, to order the desired product(s). The electronic form typically includes blank spaces for the potential buyer to enter purchase order information, including: buyer identification information (such as name, shipping address, etc.); an identification of the product(s) which is being ordered; and a credit card or account number to which the purchase price of the ordered product(s) may be billed. Once the electronic form has been correctly filled out, the buyer may communicate the purchase order information from his computer to the producer/retailer's host computer over the computer connection. Communication of the purchase order information may be initiated by various means, such as by depressing an "enter" button on the computer, a mouse-click, etc.
Exemplary systems and methods of on-line, computer-based, automatic sales transactions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,594 entitled "On-line Secured Financial Transaction System Through Electronic Media," U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,737 entitled "Financial Transaction System," and U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,473 entitled "Electronic Transfer System and Method."
Still other methods and systems of automatic sales transactions have been proposed using so-called "interactive television" wherein a buyer may interact with information received by and displayed on a television monitor. Typically, a potential buyer has a special set-top box for his or her television which receives the interactive data and presents it for display by the television monitor. The interactive data includes a product advertisement which may be displayed on the television monitor. The potential buyer also has a remote control device by which he or she may order a product advertised or displayed on the television monitor. The potential buyer's purchase order is typically communicated back to an order-entry center for the Interactive Television system by a radiowave signal, a telephony signal, or some combination thereof.
An exemplary system for interactive television-based, automatic sales transactions is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,413 entitled "Transaction Based Interactive Television System."
However, systems and methods of performing an automatic sales transaction by means of an on-line computer connection, or an interactive television system, suffer some drawbacks. For example, they require the use of a computer, or specialized interactive television equipment a potential buyer may not have. Even if the potential buyer has the necessary equipment, he or she may be traveling or otherwise unable to access the equipment for periods of time.
Buyers are also often reluctant to use on-line computer-based automatic sales transactions because of security issues regarding information, especially credit information, exchanged across the Internet. Moreover, a buyer typically must conduct an on-line, computer-based automatic sales transaction with many different individual sales entities for all of the advertised products that the buyer purchases, communicating buyer and credit information to each sales entity, increasing the chance that the information may be stolen, sold, or otherwise misused.
Meanwhile, advertiser-sponsored telephony systems have been developed which allow telephony users to place telephone calls for free or at reduced rates in exchange for exposing the telephony user to promotional messages regarding advertised products. Aspects of such advertiser-sponsored telephony systems are described, for example, in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. application Ser. Nos. 09/015,063 and 09/192,306.
Such advertiser-sponsored telephony systems have the potential for greater ubiquity than on-line computer-based advertisement systems or interactive television systems, as a user may access the advertiser-sponsored telephony system wherever he or she can find a telephone connection, including a wireless telephone connection. Moreover, potential buyers are often more comfortable sharing personal and/or credit information over a telephone connection rather than an on-line computer connection, especially if they at least initially communicate with a human on the other end of the telephone connection.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a method of performing an automatic sales transaction with an advertiser-sponsored telephony system. Other and further objects and advantages will appear hereinafter.